Rick Davis, a family friend and former top adviser to the late Sen. John McCain, said McCain's family was disappointed that his past comments are being "weaponized" in a new flight of battleground political ads airing just weeks after his death.

The National Republican Congressional Committee released two TV ads on Wednesday that feature clips of McCain criticizing Democratic candidates in the past. In Michigan, the NRCC's ad showed McCain criticizing Elissa Slotkin, a former Obama administration official, while she was testifying before a Senate committee in 2014. In Arizona, the GOP ad featured a clip of McCain speaking direct to the camera to attack Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, the former congresswoman who ran against the senator in 2016 and is running for a House seat this year.

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"The family is disappointed that John's image is being weaponized this election cycle so soon after his passing, and they had hoped there would be a more appropriate amount of time for people to think about his final message before they began to politicize him," Davis told POLITICO.

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A spokesman for the NRCC declined to comment on the ads, saying the content spoke for itself. But a source close to McCain's family said the House Republican campaign committee did not reach out to McCain's family or associates of the senator to seek approval to use his comments. McCain died in late August following a battle with brain cancer.

The NRCC not respond to questions about whether the committee sought permission to use the clips of McCain in the ads in two highly competitive congressional races.

The ad attacking Slotkin featured McCain telling her she "either don't know the truth, or you are not telling the truth." Slotkin is running in Michigan's 8th district against Republican Rep. Mike Bishop.

The Arizona ad featured McCain saying Kirkpatrick "won't oppose higher taxes. She won't oppose more federal spending. And she won't oppose increased debts that slow economic growth." Kirkpatrick is running in Arizona's Tucson-based 2nd District, which GOP Rep. Martha McSally left open to run for Senate.

Democrat Tom Malinowski, who is running in a battleground New Jersey House district, is also running an ad featuring McCain. The ad shows a clip of McCain praising Malinowski for his record opposing torture during Malinowski's confirmation hearing to be an assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration.

Malinowski reached out to aides close to McCain to seek permission to use his comments in his campaign, according to a person with knowledge of that conversation.

Some Republicans, however, were frustrated by the content. Matt Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish coalition, criticized Malinowski for using McCain's praise for political gain, and called for the Democrat to take down the commercial.

"To wait until the passing of Senator McCain to release a political ad featuring his kind words, and implying support for Malinowski, a claim that McCain is no longer here to refute, is disgusting," Brooks said.

Malinowski's campaign said Brooks' criticism was incorrect.

“Tom has been in touch with Senator McCain’s representatives throughout the campaign and has kept them in the loop since we initially used the footage back in February, including prior to running this ad. They expressed no objections to Tom using this footage or speaking about his work with Senator McCain,” said Benji Schwartz, Malinowski’s communications director.